Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Thanksgiving, 1918.

In November 1918, after the
cessation of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation
designating Thursday the twenty-eighth day of that month as ‘a day of thanksgiving
and prayer.’ The proclamation read:

It
has long been our custom to turn in the autumn of the year in praise and
thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a
nation. This year we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to
rejoice. God has in His good pleasure given us peace. It has not come as a mere
cessation of arms, a mere relief from the strain and tragedy of war. It has
come as a great triumph of right. Complete victory has brought us, not peace
alone, but the confident promise of a new day as well in which justice shall
replace force and jealous intrigue among the nations. Our gallant armies have
participated in a triumph which is not marred or stained by any purpose of
selfish aggression. In a righteous cause they have won immortal glory and have
nobly served their nation in serving mankind. God has indeed been gracious. We
have cause for such rejoicing as revives and strengthens in us all the best
traditions of our national history. A new day shines about us, in which our
hearts take new courage and look forward with new hope to new and greater
duties.

While
we render thanks for these things, let us not forget to seek the Divine
guidance in the performance of those duties, and divine mercy and forgiveness
for all errors of act or purpose, and pray that in all that we do we shall
strengthen the ties of friendship and mutual respect upon which we must assist
to build the new structure of peace and good will among the nations.

Wherefore,
I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby
designate Thursday, the twenty-eighth day of November next as a day of
thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease
upon that day from their ordinary occupations and in their several homes and
places of worship to render thanks to God, the ruler of nations.

In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.

Done
in the district of Columbia this sixteenth day of November in the year of our
Lord one thousand nine hundred and eighteen and of the independence of the
United States the one hundred and forty-third.

It would have been
interesting to know what was on the Thanksgiving table when President Wilson sat
down to dinner, but sadly I have been unable to find out. As somewhat of a
contrast however, I can give you the details of one other dinner served on this
first official Thursday Thanksgiving. It is the dinner provided to the officers
at Alcatraz, when the fortifications on the little island in San Francisco bay still
operated as a military prison.

-

- DINNER -

Ox Tail Soup,

Oyster
Cocktails,

American
Punch,

Roast
Suckling Pig,

Apple
Sauce,

Nut Dressing,

Roast
Turkey,

Cranberry
Sauce,

Giblet
Gravy,

Mashed
Potatoes,

Corn on the Cob,

Green
Peas,

Candied
Sweet Potatoes,

Celery,

Fruit
Salad,

Olives, Pickles, Picallili,

Mince
Pie with Hot Sauce

Pumpkin
Pie,

Fruit
Cake,

Coffee,

Apples, Peaches, Pears,

Bananas,
Grapes, Assorted Nuts,

Assorted
Candies,

Cigarettes,
Cigars.

Without doubt, none of the
officers escaped the dinner table hungry!

I was hard-put to think of
a recipe for any of the dishes on this menu that I have not already given you
at some time. The ‘hot sauce’ intrigued me a little however. The phrase in
Britain and the UK would usually only refer to peppery-hot or chilli-hot sauce –
hardly the sort of accompaniment to mince pie. Surely, I thought, ‘hot sauce’
in this context can only mean one thing – custard? And presumably the name is
intended to distinguish it from the alternative – hard sauce?

Here is hot sauce
according to Housekeeping, Cookery and
Sewing for Little Girls, (1925) by Olive Hyde Foster.

Hot
Sauce.

The following hot sauce is poured around [the
Christmas Pudding]: one-quarter cupful butter, one cupful sugar, one
teaspoonful flour. Mix flour and sugar, add butter and one cupful cold water,
and stir till it boils and thickens. Flavor with nutmeg.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

But at least it IS hot, or at least warm, while hard sauce isn't hard.

It is unendingly fascinating to see what things were deemed to go together in the past that we would sort quite differently now, or (of course) not consider at all. Think of all those celery dishes on our grandmothers' tables.

Of course you know this; it is a premise of the blog. I'm just moved to chime in.

Years ago my great aunt served a hot lemon sauce over mince meat pie and puddings...then topped it with "hard sauce". The lemon sauce was clear and sweet. Probalby just made with fresh lemon juice, sugar and maybe a bit of butter. The hard sauce was confectioners sugar and butter combined. It was a very stiff mixture made by adding the sugar to the butter until it couldn't hold anymore...then chilled. I loved to eat it alone by the spoonful...forget the mince meat or anything else!

Thanks, Anonymous. I rather like the sound of hot lemon sauce over mince pie and Xmas pudding - but I think at my family Christmas there would be a riot if anything other than good vanilla custard, speckled with vanilla bean seeds, was served.